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True. This is something that could be done for a couple of harddisks at some point (even if it's just to show that it's possible )
But you probably don't want to do this for the majority of harddisks because a) it's just too many and b) documentation for the CPUs/MCUs used is almost non-existant in the wild (even more so for really old harddisks)

So in a few years MESS might have 1 or 2 harddisks with "lowlevel" emulation and one generic harddisk that can simulate every other hdd required to a certain level of detail (which is most probably good enough for all emulated systems)

My original intention was to simplify the creation of a harddisk file that matches a certain BIOS entry / document the harddisks originally used in a certain machine.
I agree with Darkstar on the subject of low level emulation:

I'll dedicate some of my holiday time in February and March to implement the ST-225 one level "lower" than now, i.e. at the level of the floppy system, as a MFM storage device. I'll then be able to finally complete the HDC9234 controller and drop the legacy support. However, I won't include particular firmware-based behavior (like the power-up head movements and calibration or whatever this entails).

The drives used in System 246/256 have normally unreadable sectors containing the security keys (these don't count against the C/H/S geometry or capacity), and use Sony-custom ATA commands to read them. So firmware-level emulation would be nice, if not strictly necessary.

Errr, they do? I've copied/cloned several HDDs and they work fine. At the time when I dumped it, I wrote the image from Fate Unlimited Codes back to a blank 40GB HDD and an 80GB HDD and it worked fine too. I think you mean the HDDs used on Konami PS2-based games like Thrill Drive 3 etc.....

The 'orrible Kalok KL343 IDE drive uses a Z8 MCU ... and here is a dump of its ROM

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55419307/Harddisk/Kalok%20KL343.rar

Guru: right, I was thinking of the Konami PS2 stuff. Namco's less protected, I gather.

This document seems to talk about the Kalok drives' self test that can be seen in the ROM dump ... http://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/doc.pc3000dos/050530.001/PCKALOK.pdf ... how is it accessed?

The utility is included in the software package complex "PC-3000" and operates in conjunction with the board tester
"PC-3000AT" or "PC-3000PRO" and adapter board "PC-KALOK".


It looks like you need a PC-3000 device with a PC-KALOK adapter

I'm assuming there is some sort of diagnostic port on the drive

Thanks, Al ... Google translate had left me somewhat puzzled